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WEAZEL Kids
''WEAZEL Kids (originally known as WEAZEL Children's Saturday Morning Block) was an American children's programming block that ran from July 13th, 1991 to November 9th, 2002. WEAZEL Kids originated as a programming block that aired on several WEAZEL stations on Saturday mornings from 06:00am to 13:00pm (One O'clock). History WEAZEL Kids was launched on July 13th, 1991, as WEAZEL Children's Saturday Morning Block, a joint venture between the WEAZEL Corporation and its affiliated company Fred Quincy Entertainment. It's programming aired for 8 hours on Saturday mornings, each show 30 minutes to an hour long each. In September 1995, the block was rebranded to WEAZEL Kids. Decline and Final Years WEAZEL Kids had been the top-rated children's program block among the major networks since 1993. However, by 1998, it was overtaken in ratings by CCC's COOL block and !rto's morning E-I block. CCC aired mostly comedy-based cartoons at this time, while !rto Network aired preschool/E-I programming on weekday mornings, splintering the audience. All of these factors left WEAZEL Kids behind, and the programmers couldn't find a way to catch up and stand out in this crowded field. Despite good reviews, the block began declining in revenue from viewers, which led to WEAZEL Kids (along with the shows on the block's final lineup) being sold to Fred Quincy Entertainment in mid-2002. The Final WEAZEL Kids aired on November 9th, 2002, before all the shows (with the exception of Freedom Force and Rocky Mountain High) would be moved to !rto Family's Unnamed Saturday Morning Action Block. Post-WEAZEL Kids After the fall of WEAZEL Kids, Fred Quincy Entertainment instituted a three-hour morning lineup on its newly acquired !rto Family cable channel (known as "!rto Family's Unnamed Saturday Morning Action Block") that featured content formerly featured on WEAZEL Kids. In 2004, Fred Quincy Entertainment rebranded it's block to "!rto EX"; which was first used in the United States on the !rto Family's morning block and a new prime-time lineup on Fred Prime. The !rto EX block was killed off on December 16th, 2006 on !rto Family, then on April 24th, 2010 on Fred Prime, likely due to the introduction of online streaming services. Meanwhile, WEAZEL put its vacant programming block up for bidding, and 4Kids Entertainment an anonymous company, purchased the remaining Saturday Morning time period. WEAZEL maintained a Saturday morning-only schedule until December 7th, 2002, a week before it gave the time to 4Kids Entertainment the new owner. WEAZEL Kids was replaced by the 4Kids Entertainment-produced WEAZEL Easel on December 14th, 2002 on all WEAZEL stations in North America. The block ran until December 27th, 2008, marking WEAZEL's complete withdrawal from children's programming. Schedule (*) represents a fictional show Final Lineup (1999 - 2002) See Also * Fox Kids - Real-World Equivalent on Wikipedia * WEAZEL - Parent Network * Fred's Pictures - Subsidiary of Fred Quincy Entertainment * !rto - Owner of !rto Family Category:Fictional television networks Category:Defunct programming blocks Category:Television channels and stations established in 1991 Category:Syndication Category:Syndicated Block Category:WEAZEL Category:Kids shows